02/24 @ 9:00pm - Ben Miller, Frantz Loriot & Jeremiah Cymerman

Jeremiah Cymerman is a composer and clarinetist based in Brooklyn, New York. Since 2002 he has been active in a wide variety of musical contexts and has been honored to present his work in some of New York City’s most highly regarded venues for avant-garde and experimental music including Roulette, The Stone, Issue Project Room, Anthology Film Archives, and Washington Square Church. Described by Time Out New York as “one of downtown’s most inventive and resourceful composer-performers” Cymerman has worked with a broad range of contemporary artists including Otomo Yoshihide, John Zorn, Jandek, Ned Rothenberg, Ikue Mori, Peter Evans, Jessica Pavone, Toby Driver, Lawrence D. “Butch” Morris, Trevor Dunn, Walter Thompson, Nate Wooley, Mary Halvorson, and Matthew Welch, among many others.

Ben Miller’s solo performance explores the “prepared guitar” as a form of auditory degeneration. This mulitphonic instrument (a deconstructed Gibson Kalamazoo) has two humbucker pickups (bridge/nut), two contact pickups (body/headstock) and a third pickup (mobile) with a variable pan to further complicate matters. The guitar is placed on its back with its six strings strung approx. one fifth below standard tuning. Intonation is arbitrary. The strings are primarily excited by the use/abuse of various objects; metal slides, violin bow, eBow, combs, springs, etc. The strings are occasionally “prepared” with binder clips, Ace bandage fasteners, and other found objects. On top of this, retaining a stereo output, Miller adds a score of analog and digital electronics, Casio SK1, cassette tape, radio, and the liberal use of a bixby tailpiece. Besides sounds generated by the strings, the instrument also makes use of string-sounds below the bridge, above the nut, and sounds from the guitar body itself. The neck and frets are rarely implemented in the traditional means of a “neck with frets”. A guitar pick is never used. Approaches to the instrument extend from subtle to violent. The end result is a textured, layered, multiphonic soundscape.

French violist/violinist Frantz Loriot performs solo as well as in various ensembles, ranging from rock to contemporary music by way of improvisation and electronics. He contributed to multidisciplinary projects connected to poetry, cinema, theatre and dance.